One of the best things about living in our neighborhood is that there are kids everywhere. In our row of six houses, four of the houses have preschool and toddler-aged children. On warm summer nights and mild autumn days, the kids meet up in the shared front yard and run up and down the hills. The noise of the first child out the door beckons all the others to follow and soon there are seven kids in the yard. They have so much fun that children from other parts of the neighborhood, who just happen to be walking by with their parents, have been known to stop and join in.

Today there was snow. Lots of snow. And the noise of the other children playing in the snow came at the most inopportune time. I was feeding Baby Anne. My husband--who was kept home from the office due to the snow--was about to do a conference call. Meg and Clare were still in their pajamas. But Clare looked out the window and announced, "They have a sled." Neither Meg nor Clare had ever been on a real sled. We've used our share of cardboard boxes in the past, but typically we don't get enough snow to justify storing a sled. At that point, she had me. We were going to get them outside before the other kids went in.

I had the girls put on their snow pants right over their pajamas and we added coats, hats, boots and gloves as quickly as we could. I sent them out at first under the watchful eye of the other parents and quickly found Anne's snowsuit. I bundled her up and was outside in time to see the girls sled down the hill. The sledding continued. The girls decided to build a snow village at the bottom of the hill. One of the moms even put together a decent-sized snowman. Clare--who is usually miserable in cold and snowy conditions--was all smiles today (as you can see from the picture) and remained outside until all the neighbor children went back home.

As is our tradition (and the tradition of just about everybody else), the girls insisted on hot chocolate when they came inside. Clare insisted on hot chocolate despite the fact she doesn't really like it. That is just what you do when you've played in the snow. You might as well embrace the full experience.

This has been a rough winter. Everyone has grown tired of the cold, snow and ice. But we found some fresh joy in the snow today. I am so glad we went outside.

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I am Sandra Penfield--a one-time lawyer who is now a very happy stay-at-home mom. This blog is about making every day the very best it can be. ​

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